How do I stop wasting money on books

[7Wannabe5]

@jacob:

A human is a "system capable of sustaining itself due to self-generating processes taking place within its boundary, the boundary being of its own own making." A book is not, a virus is not, and a youtube video is not. Therefore, I do not know whether it is entirely proper to apply the same verb "digest" to an algorithm or a virus and a human.

That said, I agree that some youtube videos produced by computer algorithms might be the equivalent of lead-based paint chips. However, since I do interact with many young children on a regular basis, my take on the article is that it is unduly alarmist, and based on rather archaic "blank slate" theory of early childhood development. I once made the "mistake" of playing the below video (you have to watch the whole thing!-lol) for a group of 5/6/7 year old children, and many in the group showed a fairly high level of sophistication in their emotional and rational "digestion" or "cognition." Kids sometimes think bizarre videos constructed by "robots" are funny, because they know that they are stupid, but much more often than not, they will reject such a video for being "wrong" or "weird", just like an infant will not accept some bizarre mask as the substitute for a friendly human face. IOW, in many ways, young children can be more rigid, still core reliant on innate hard-wiring, than older learners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0a0aNqTehM

@Jason:

I agree that my suggestion of "fine line" was incorrect, and I also agree that this is a matter having to do with moral standing. Allow me to attempt re-phrase. It has been my experience that application of brute efficiency towards simple metric may result in overall loss of quality within the complex system.

OTOH, I may simply be rationalizing my own spending due to fairly recent adoption of the erudition-maximization practice promoted by Nassim Taleb, combined with the fact that I was spoiled by having immediate access to any new-new book I wanted to read when I was the inventory manager of the alpha-store of a mega-book chain. Over the years, I have assigned myself many reading challenges, such as "everything he wrote", "down chain of influence","random spin" \, "curated list of greats" or "alphabetical within category." I suppose this is analogous to how some other people approach exercise or sports. I have found the method/practice suggest by Taleb, which requires dropping and switching multiple books as soon and often as preferred, while maximizing overall time devoted, to be the very best for "me", but it does tend to lead to the occasional purchase of a new-new title. In retrospect, I can honestly say that "I" have wasted more life-energy by NOT buying the right book, tool or even little black dress at the right time than the converse. YMMV.

[theanimal]

Kids sometimes think bizarre videos constructed by "robots" are funny, because they know that they are stupid, but much more often than not, they will reject such a video for being "wrong" or "weird", just like an infant will not accept some bizarre mask as the substitute for a friendly human face. IOW, in many ways, young children can be more rigid, still core reliant on innate hard-wiring, than older learners.

They may think it odd, but what is the effect on them watching a variant of the video 5 times? 10 times? 100 times? more? These videos are shown to kids when their mind is in one of the greatest development phases of their lives. I think it undoubtedly influences them and leads to some effect or change, whether conscious or not. Its no different than what happen to the mind when exposed to thousands of ads or hours and hours of reality television (or tv in general for that matter...).

[7Wannabe5]

@theanimal:

Over the past 3 or 4 years, I have directly interacted with hundreds of children from widely varying socio-economic/cultural backgrounds between the ages of 4 and 7, and I have on numerous occasions participated in activities where children write a story about their favorite character, or pass around a microphone and share how they spent their weekend. I have also very frequently had to remind children to stop playing games or watching videos and redirect their i-pad use to an educational program setting. Yet, I am only vaguely familiar with Peppa the Pig. The current ACTUAL fandom list among the very young would be more like:

1) Elsa (with a bullet, nothing else even comes close second. 9 times out of 10 that a little girl gets to pick a music video for free dance, she will choose "Let It Go", and then 9 out of 10 of the little boys will refuse to dance. )
2) Chuckie Cheese
3) Sponge Bob Squarepants
4) Mindstorms
5) Power Rangers
6) Gummy Bears

IOW, for better or worse, I see very little evidence of bizarre variation from the standard cultural messages and/or species inherent tendencies of "pretty princesses have long blonde hair", "pizza and candy taste yummy", and "it is fun to build towers and then kick them over or shoot them down with a super-gun."

[theanimal]

@7wanna

Fair enough. My experience with my younger sisters and other younger kids reveals the same. I'd add minecraft to the list.

I'm puzzled by the billions or millions of views in the channels in that article.Who is watching this stuff?

[7Wannabe5]

@theanimal:

Yup, brain burp, I meant to type minecraft, not mindstorms. Based on very small sample size of context in which I have encountered the Peppa the Pig meme, I would say that it might be very popular with the approximately 3% of the human population that was the kid in your 3rd grade class who made rude noises using his underarm as instrument and then laughed uproariously at his own humor, while the quiet child sitting next to him reading C.S. Lewis frowned and scooted away, and the child on his other side,who had already mastered all the dance moves to the video most popular with those already in 5th grade, clearly expressed her cool disdain.

[George the original one]

Uobtainium. Damn, I really hate when the books I want are high-priced limited editions. REALLY limited editions... I just ordered two books, 1 of 120 and 1 of 240. Thankfully, together, they were only $200 plus shipping from UK to USA rather than priced to reflect their true rarity!

[thrifty++]

Surprised you cant get most things at your library. I wonder if you live in a small town. I can get almost everything from mine which networks all libraries in the whole metro city. I live in a big city though. But if the library doesnt have what I need they will usually buy it when I make a request. I much prefer getting books from the library as it avoids all the clutter of book ownership. Regularly have a massive order of books from the library and just keep collecting them.

[George the original one]

@thrifty++

If that's directed at me, well, I live near a small town rather than in one... have to pay $50/yr to check anything out of the local library (which has an interlibrary loan, but it's with a couple of equally small town libraries) because I'm not a resident.

And when I say "unobtainium", I really mean it. 240 copies of a book in print and only 120 copies of a book that's out of print. Neither book has an ISBN. They have to be ordered from the author; I was lucky to find three sources for the out of print book -- at double the author's price and they're all in Europe. Fortunately you can resell "unobtainium", usually at a profit. That's what 7wannabe5 made her living on.

[thrifty++]

Oh I see. OK that makes sense. I dont seek extremely rare books. So havent experienced that issue. But see what you are saying.

[smokin]

i also read a lot of books(50 books a year last 3 of 5 years) but have come to the conclusion that keeping them around is only to make myself feel better. i have yet to have someone comment i read a lot or must be very knowledgeable when seeing my multiple bookselves.

i would advise doing this if you do not have a nearby library. buy it from amazon, used of course; and try and get a hardback if possible. After you have read it and well satisfied; try and sell it on amazon and once you have a large enough stack that just doesn't seem to sell; donate it and maybe you can deduct it from you taxes.

[Jason]

i have yet to have someone comment i read a lot or must be very knowledgeable when seeing my multiple bookselves.

I hate that.

[prognastat]

I actually signed up for the local library this year and they have some nice facilities. I hope this will help me buy fewer books in general and also lead to fewer unread books as there is something about having to return the book that lights a fire under my ass and makes me more likely to start and complete reading a book within a reasonable time frame.